Agencies must be the engines behind sustained transparency push

Norm Eisen, special counsel to the President for ethics and government reform, said federal agencies and the public, more than the White House, are accountable for sustaining open government.

The day after taking office, President Obama committed himself to an open government agenda that would improve transparency, citizen participation and public-private interaction, in part by applying new technologies to agency operations. "This initial push is really wonderful, but what's going to be done to sustain the culture change that we want to occur? It's very easy for the agencies to drift back if the White House isn't paying attention," said Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of transparency advocates. She moderated a talk on Friday hosted by the Center for American Progress, a Washington research group with close ties to the White House. At the event, transparency specialists from inside and outside government debated the impact of Obama's initiative with most agreeing it has enhanced transparency, public participation and collaboration with the corporate sector. The next big task under the program is an open government plan -- an agency-specific navigational chart for embedding transparency into daily operations.